Drayton Manor Park - Splash Canyon Incident

[Doublethink]

E-stop would have most likely just created a more dangerous situation so is unlikely to be the correct course of action.

PA yes, but I have no idea how good the PA system on that ride is.

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Sadly I can't find any footage of an ESTOP on a rapids ride so have no idea how quickly the system drains or water speed decrease. What I was referring to is estoping the ride if the guests were refusing to sit after multiple prompts over the tannoy rather to avoid a man overboard situation rather than in this case after Eva fell out later which I could see making the situation worse.

 

[evilcod]

Sadly I can't find any footage of an ESTOP on a rapids ride so have no idea how quickly the system drains or water speed decrease. What I was referring to is estoping the ride if the guests were refusing to sit after multiple prompts over the tannoy rather to avoid a man overboard situation rather than in this case after Eva fell out later which I could see making the situation worse.

Unless the boat had just left the turntable it would most likely make it's way around the full course regardless of an e-stop, slightly slower granted but with the lower water level it would be a more turbulent ride as the boats got closer to the rapids logs.

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[pluk]

No realistic system could have every boat watched for every moment of its ride duration. To do so would require one staff member per boat, they may as well be riding it with the guests if that's what's required!

 

[Rick]

An E-stop would have made the area in question deeper.

 

[Themepark-newbie]

No realistic system could have every boat watched for every moment of its ride duration. To do so would require one staff member per boat, they may as well be riding it with the guests if that's what's required!

Agreed, but the cctv footage shown today shows the girls pretty much continually swapping places and standing. That should have been seen?

 

[Rick]

Agreed, but the cctv footage shown today shows the girls pretty much continually swapping places and standing. That should have been seen?

Indeed - not to underplay it, that's fairly common place and not something of note. I've worked on a rapid ride for three days in my life, so don't claim to be an expert, but rightly or wrongly, someone standing was not something to be concerned about because it's literally more than a million to one chance they'll end up in the drink, let alone lose their life.

Plus, if you do see someone stood up on a rapids ride, your options as an operator are limited.

 

[DiogoJ42]

As I understand it, schools and other youth groups (scouts / guides / cadets / whatever) rely on trusting that the venue knows what they are doing, and has their own risk assessments and emergency plans in place.
They will obviously do their own RA for other parts of the trip, but when it comes to activities under the control of the venue itself, be it rock climbing or rides, the school RA pretty much says "will be under the supervision of trained proffessionals", and "kids will obey any instructions from staff".
(Feel free to correct me on this, teachers )

So if there's one group we should eliminate from the blame game right now, it's the poor teachers.

 

[Rick]

@DiogoJ42 As a scout leader, this is an actual copy/paste of my risk assessment from our visit to Legoland;

Risk - there is a risk that Scouts will not abide by attraction/venue policies and procedures
Mitigation - Scouts will be supervised in groups by an adult with a ratio of 4:1 for Scouts and 2:1 for Cub Scouts.

 

[DiogoJ42]

@DiogoJ42 As a scout leader, this is an actual copy/paste of my risk assessment from our visit to Legoland;

Risk - there is a risk that Scouts will not abide by attraction/venue policies and procedures
Mitigation - Scouts will be supervised in groups by an adult with a ratio of 4:1 for Scouts and 2:1 for Cub Scouts.

I cannot argue with such evidence, sir. But most school trips to theme parks let the kids wander without teacher escort.

 

[Rick]

I cannot argue with such evidence, sir. But most school trips to theme parks let the kids wander without teacher escort.

Quite possibly, I don't doubt it. Was certainly the case when I was a lad. Although we did get our geography teacher on the Thunder Looper, as I recall.

That said, I think that pretty much sums it up - that approach has been largely fine for decades for hundreds of thousands of kids on trips to every park, from every school. This one time, things took a tragic turn.

Also, it's worth noting this was her second turn on the ride. She was accompanied by a teacher the first time around.

 

[Benjsh]

Seat belts on the rapids are a terrible idea, not safe if a boat was to unlikely to capsize. If sat down properly, even if standing up t avoid a wave or to swap seats, falling out of those boats should be very difficult unless you are hanging over the edge like the kids were doing.

There are countless rapids rides in the world, including some of the newer ones, that have a seatbelt. Please do some research.

 

[Doublethink]

There are countless rapids rides in the world, including some of the newer ones, that have a seatbelt. Please do some research.

From my experience at the Florida parks which all have rapids with seatbelts, people are less likely to standard. Most use the Intamin quick fix style which are fairly easy to detach in case of emergency

 

[Rick]

@Benjsh Do they have rotating loading platforms? I don't recall riding something with seatbelts that does, feels difficult to achieve.

Animal Kingdom maybe? Been a while.

 

[John_P]

Cedar Point, Kings Island, and Kennywood rapids all have seat belts and a rotating platform.

 

[Doublethink]

@Benjsh Do they have rotating loading platforms? I don't recall riding something with seatbelts that does, feels difficult to achieve.

Animal Kingdom maybe? Been a while.

Kali and Popeye are turntable, Congo and Infinity Falls are belt based stations

 

[Rick]

Cedar Point, Kings Island, and Kennywood rapids all have seat belts and a rotating platform.

Your memory is better than mine!

Oddly, Cedar Point found out to their peril the dangers of having guests restrained on a water ride and only just avoided a similar tragedy.

If you can pop the seatbelt I'm not convinced that's a huge deterrent, but I guess it doesn't need to be huge - just needs to work.

 

[Skyscraper]

When I went to Drayton earlier this year I got talking to a couple of school lads in the Apocalypse queue. Can't remember how old they were but they were allowed to go around on their own. Pupils in lower years were accompanied by teachers.

 

[RoyJess]

There are countless rapids rides in the world, including some of the newer ones, that have a seatbelt. Please do some research.

Doesn't mean that they are save or comfortable. Imagine having to put on a wet seat belt? Like @Rick say's what the point in them if you can undo them yourself during a ride? The inquest will probably make some recommendations once it comes to a conclusion. I still don't think that seat belts are the answers and I've been riding the rapids for many years. The risk of falling out, even if you are standing up are very slim. However hanging over the side of the boat placing your hands into the water is beyond stupid.

 

[John_P]

Your memory is better than mine!

Oddly, Cedar Point found out to their peril the dangers of having guests restrained on a water ride and only just avoided a similar tragedy.

If you can pop the seatbelt I'm not convinced that's a huge deterrent, but I guess it doesn't need to be huge - just needs to work.

It was only in June I visited the parks.

Shoot The Rapids restraints were more akin to something like Rita from my memory. Went in it in 2012 (so before their incident) but have to say I did find it a bit of a worrying system for they type of ride back then.

I think the restraints they used on the rapids worked fine, I unconsciously attempted to stand up to avoid a waterfall and obviously couldn't due to the belt. Has to be said from recollection the rapids and log flume rides I did in America this summer had staff located around the ride as well.

 

[Islander]

Couple of points hit me reading the past 50-odd posts.

Regarding water depth/E-stop etc., I think it’s a fair assumption that with the ride running the girl would’ve been out of her depth in that section anyway, so increasing the depth further by stopping the pumps won’t have made that aspect any worse. What stopping the pumps would achieve is the removal of the quite extreme currents that they create (save, in fairness, for the initial moments where the pumps empty). So, I really don’t see how any action other than e-stopping could be justified as the best immediate course of action, once the situation is known.

Regarding CCTV, it should be questioned why it wasn’t necessarily noticed that the kids were misbehaving, BUT, it should also be realised just how much an operator has to concentrate on at the same time. As well as watching cctv, they have to keep an eye on the whole turntable, ensuring loading and unloading is being completed correctly, potentially confirm with the loader that each boat is good to dispatch (don’t know what Drayton’s policies were etc), potentially control the boat turn after the lift (again don’t know the specifics of Drayton’s), maybe keep an eye on queue length and relay that to a control etc etc etc. Even if some of these are delegated, the operator still retains overall responsibility of the team.

And, on top of all that, watch maybe 15+ cctv images, potentially each only a couple of inches across depending on how big the screens are and how many are crammed into the cabin...

It doesn’t excuse it, and questions (maybe particularly over workload) should be asked... but I can see how an operator could miss a group of kids mucking about during an entire ride cycle.


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